Absolutely cannot get MVP to work

[BobPhoenix]

OK you've convinced me I'll skip then next Stargate SG-1 and fix my main server as well.

BobP.

[jlabrue]

Ok you can't skip Stargate. That is blasphemy! Seriously. I haven't checked mine yet but can't wait.

[srothwell]

I have also had problems with MVP and I have the exact same motherboard as you. I have also tried on another MB and it works fine.

My MVP boots OK and gets the menus but will crash and re-boot when you try to play any video.

Originally Posted by BobPhoenix

The second board that doesn't work is an ASUS K8N-E deluxe. AMD 64 nForce3 250Gb. WinXP Pro.

Working AMD's

1. A DFI NFII ULTRA INFINITY - NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset with same 3200+ and 1GB memory but a Linksys GB lan card. WinXP Home.
2. A DFI LANPARTY NFII ULTRA B - NVIDIA nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset with same 3200+ and 1GB memory and Realtek RTL8110S Gigabit LAN on motherboard. MCE2005

All the Intels I have tried work:
ASUS P4C800, Soyo SY-7VBA133U and Tyan Tomcat i7210 (S5112).

Didn't try it on anything earlier than the SY-7VBA133U that I have lying around.

BobP.

[ke6guj]

Did you read all the posts in the thread, I posted a fix in post #35. Did it work for you?

[srothwell]

The fix from #35 did it!

I am concerned that someone pointed out that there will likely be a drop in network performance turning the parameter off, so hopefully the folks at Sage can figure out how to work around it and have us turn it back on.

But for now..... YEAH!!! The WAF is going to go through the roof tomorrow when she wakes up.....

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Did you read all the posts in the thread, I posted a fix in post #35. Did it work for you?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Hey guys I got it figured out on my system.

If you go into the properties for the nForce networking controller, you can change the "checksum offload" in the Advanced Tab, from enable to disable.

That'll fix the problem. Works on my main MSI K7N2 and also the ASUS K8N-E deluxe

Thanks for the info!

I added that note to first post of this forum's sticky: Using the Hauppauge MediaMVP with SageTV v4.1

- Andy

[jlabrue]

Originally Posted by srothwell

The fix from #35 did it!

I am concerned that someone pointed out that there will likely be a drop in network performance turning the parameter off, so hopefully the folks at Sage can figure out how to work around it and have us turn it back on.

But for now..... YEAH!!! The WAF is going to go through the roof tomorrow when she wakes up.....

Don't worry about performance too much. Unless you copy a lot of data the difference you will see will probably be negligible if any. The streaming nature of the client shouldn't have any problems unless you run several at a time. The performance hit will be the processor since it will have to perform the checksum instead of being able to "offload" that to the NIC processor. But YES they should look into what needs to be fixed to re-enable that function cause it does help with system performance.

Thanks for taking the time to help get this fixed guys! I was beginning to think I was flying solo on this problem. I did get the chance to make the change on my Sage server and it did indeed fix mine!

As for this problem......another one bites the dust......

[Enormous]

Originally Posted by Narflex

NForce chipset eh? We'll have to give that a try...

I too am running an nForce chipset (nForce2).

I'm definately going to try disabling the checksum offload option to see if that helps my MVP stuttering!

[Stuntman]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

Same thing fixed my 3com card, but I had RX & TX (disabled both). After primetime viewing is over (WAF went through the floor when I changed those settings, remember folks, always make changes after the boss is done watching TV ), I'll try each individually, and see which kills the MVP.

Let us know what you discover.. I have a 3com card that has both those settings as well.. Oddly, my Nvidia Nforce2, built in NIC doesn't have those options!

Thanks!

[Bandit]

Well, I tried the fix and even attempted to change other settings. No matter what I change I can not play any video, MVP just reboots after attempting to play.

[starvoise]

Originally Posted by Bandit

Well, I tried the fix and even attempted to change other settings. No matter what I change I can not play any video, MVP just reboots after attempting to play.

Just to confurm that I had the same experience with a NForce 3 mobo (MSI Neo) and nothing I changed in relation to network would make it work. Swapped the mobo to a VIA based one (ABIT AV*) and it is all good now.

[Bandit]

Well, I set all settings back to default and then changed the checksum offload and now its working fine. This is so much fun But at least its working now, thanks to whomever found that fix!

[malbec]

I have an old AsRock board with a Via ethernet controller. Any tips where to fid this setting? I am experiencing the same thing ... stuttering that is more pronounced as the selected quality of the recording is improved.

Thanks

Update:
I did not find anything relaed to "checksum offload" but did manage to track down the 100 Full/100Half/10Full/10Half/Automatic switch. It was set to "Automatic" I changed it to 100 Full and that fixed the video stuttering.

For my own educational purposes, what is the difference betwen half and full duplex.

[Bandit]

Originally Posted by malbec

For my own educational purposes, what is the difference betwen half and full duplex.

Half=send or receive
Full=send and receive at same time, no collisions caused by data moving both ways down the cable.

[TheSuper]

Your thoughts please, on this similar problem.

My MVP loads SageTV4.1.3 and the menus work just just fine.
But watching any video is (jitters / stutters / freezes / jerky) as others have described. It acts like it almost wants to display a smooth picture but fails.

*** My setup ***
(1)The Recording PC, (2)Office PC and the (3)MVP are all on the same 100 MByte Switch / SubNet. While running videos at the same time, the MVP is jittery but the Office PC Client displays video just fine. It is like the MVP is not getting a steady / fast through-put of data to maintain a steady picture stream. (Either the MVP does not have enough video cache to keep up and/or the network acts like it can't keep up.

I think the network through-put is just fine and something is wrong with the MVP and/or SageTV software on the MVP.

(1) The Recording PC uses little or no network to record and show video via the TVout of the PVR350. (Nic Card: Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet)
(2) The Office PC used approx a 3-4 MBytes data stream to display video to the SageTV Client. (Nic Card: VIA Rhine II Fast Ethernet Adapter)
(3) I verified the test by 2FarGone the MVP streams about 5.5 MBytes of data when video is playing.

While monitor the network usage the MVP and Office PC use approx 8 MBytes when playing at the same time. If there were a network flow problem then both video would stuttering, they do not, only the MVP stutters.

The only adjustment on the "Realltek" card was to set the card from (100 MBytes full/half duplex) to (10 MBytes full/half duplex). Various settings used did not resolve the juttering. Just guessing, there is more than enough bandwidth to run a dozen PC clients off the Server and still have room to spare.

I was hoping that a Network Card setting as mentioned in post#35 would fix the problem no such luck. I am going to try connecting the MVP directly to the SageTV Server via a Cross-Over cable and see if it still jitters. Maybe even try a different Network Card in the Server. Wish me luck and if there is something I am over looking, please point me in the right direction.

Mike

[TripleTapper]

Just remember that the MVP needs a DHCP server to assign it a IP, so if you connect the MVP directly to your PC, make sure you have a DHCP server configured on your PC.

[TheSuper]

I finally have success Now to figure out how to fix the problem.

Correct, DHCP is needed to directly connect with a cross-over cable and load SageTV. That is the part of the test that was difficult to work around.
WinXP Pro by default doesn't come with DHCP Server just client, unless using Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) with 2 network cards.

*** How I got DHCP to work in my test ***
I got the test to work by connecting 3 computers to a Switch in the living room. (1)MediaMVP, (2)SageTV PC and (3)Linux running DHCP service
The MVP was able to get IP info from Linux then load SageTV as designed.

*** First Test ***
It failed and still had the jittery video. I realized that the network card was still manually configured from the previous test using "10 MBytes Full Duplex". It is by default a 100 MByte network card.

*** Second Test ***
It ran prefectly. I reset the Network Card to "Auto detect" available bandwidth which is 100 MBytes Full Duplex. The MVP loaded with in seconds and the video played flawlessly.

Now I have to figure out why it is not working in my Office.
I'm thinking there are two possibilities.
* The Realtek RTL8139 network card has problems
* The 125 feet of Cat5e network cable run from the office to the living room is damaged, kinked or getting EMF power cord cross-talk.

It is strange that the Office PC running SageTV Client is fine but the MVP is jittery. Both PC communicate to the SageTV Server via the 125 foot Cat5e cable. My home network works fine as is. But when I introduce the MVP into the setup it have to set the network card on the SageTV server to 10 MBytes or it will not load at all. Stranger still that it worked at 100 MBytes with sort nic cables in the living room. I have 2 other network cards that I am going to try to see if they fix the problem and allow 100 MBytes bandwith to the MVP when setup in the Office.

Is there some networking / cable Rule that I am breaking that would cause this strange behavior?

Mike

[MrApollinax]

Have you tried Hauppauge's recommended TCPIP registry tweaks for the MVP? Here's the link:

http://hauppauge.lightpath.net/softw...timization.reg

Load it on the SageTV server and see if that helps.

[TheSuper]

MrApollinax - Thanks for the suggestion to use the "tcp optimize" reg fix but on my network it actually make the problem worse. Removing it works better.

Finally, my network problem fixed and MediaMVP works GREAT.
* Replaced the network card with same brand but newer version.
* Purchased a 5 port Switch to isolate video bandwidth of SageTV PC, MediaMVP, and Office PC to one device.

It seems that others that have solved their MediaMVP problem, have also had hardware and/or network card configuration problems. Having a device that demands high preformance revealed a bandwidth issues on my network.

*** Increase in Bandwidth ***
Observing the through-put after the changes. It is obvious that more bandwidth is being used. Now when the MediaMVP and the Office PC are both running SageTV they consistently use 10-11 MBytes. With surges of 25 MBytes when starting a video. It is no wonder the network card couldn't keep up, when set at 10 MBytes instead of 100 MBytes.

As stated by others in the Media Extender forums, I too am experiencing occassional glitches in the video about once in an hour or two. It is sooo brief that I can live it. The problem doesn't seem to be related to the MediaMVP. It is more likely my network data stream than the MediaMVP.

Mike

[MrApollinax]

Glad you got it up and running. The TCP optimization fixed my issues but then again i was already running 100MB on my network. The reg fix probably was meant for 100MB links.